Are you wondering what’s the best AI blog writing tool on the market? We’ve removed the guesswork for you by conducting an experiment using some of the most popular platforms. This is what we found…
Right now, AI writers are more hyped than a Taylor Swift gig.
With so many options and so much information – and misinformation – we decided it was time to put some software to the test.
We set about creating and publishing three articles on the same topic with the assistance of three different AI writing tools – so we could analyse each platform and its processes, and compare results.
We were primarily keen to analyse and measure the following factors in order to determine the best AI blog writing tool:
- AI tool usability and functionality: the process of content generation
- SEO value: Google page ranking/positioning and overall organic page views
AI writers like ChatGPT are all the rage. Credit: Mojahid Mottakin on Unsplash.
Best AI Blog Writing Tool – 3 Options
At Hunt & Hawk HQ, we focused on a trio of leading AI writing tools. They were:
- AI Writer 2.0 by Ubersuggest: Part of Neil Patel’s NP Digital business
- ChatGPT: The OpenAI platform that everyone is talking about
- HubSpot’s AI blog writer: A popular product from one of the best CRM platforms on the market
Article Subject
We decided to create blog articles based on the longtail keyphrase: The Iron Triangle of Project Management.
Clearly, we could have chosen any number of topics but were primarily concerned with a keyphrase that had high search volume and reasonable competition. There is tons of existing online content that explores this theme.
Our topic of choice: The Iron Triangle of Project Management.
Experiment Parameters
To create an even playing field for the experiment – or as close as we could get to it – we put clear parameters in place for the creation of the content from go to woe.
Quite simply, we asked each platform to generate a blog-style article relating to the topic of ‘The Iron Triangle of Project Management’.
Note: Unsurprisingly, the blog creation process differs across the various platforms. See the ‘usability’ section of this article below for more.
Once the trio had crafted its words, the only modifications we made to the three articles within their respective GDOCs were to:
- Amend the copy to Australian (British) spelling
- Add appropriate paragraph and sentence breaks for better readability
- Ensure headings and subheadings were all title case for uniformity — and for the 1% or so of extra SEO ‘juice’ that it provides
- Add in a CTA at the article end, with subtle differences between each piece
We then uploaded the articles to our WordPress blog one at a time but within minutes of each other.
We uploaded the articles in quick succession. Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.
Enhancing Their SEO-Ness
In line with our ‘level playing field’ objective – and to increase the articles’ value in the eyes of Google – we ensured each piece had ticked the same boxes, as prompted by the Rank Math SEO plugin we use.
They included:
- Using the focus keyword inside the meta description
- Using the focus keyword in the URL*
- Adding imagery**
- Adding an image with the focus keyword as alt text
- Adding inbound and outbound links
*As exact URLs can’t be duplicated, the numbers ‘1’ and ‘2’ were added at the end of two of the blogs.
**The same imagery was used across the three blogs, including the header graphic. However, the AI Writer 2.0 and HubSpot articles were notably longer in length than the ChatGPT blog, so they received a couple of extra images for increased readability.
Backend work was required. Credit: Justin Morgan on Unsplash.
We then altered the dates of the articles so they were scattered throughout our blog, and buried deep.
Why did we do this?
Firstly, having three articles with the same preview image visible on the blog would have created a poor UX for our website visitors. On face value, for the unsuspecting reader, it would’ve appeared as though we had uploaded the same article thrice. Amateurs.
Of more relevance to the experiment, and to keep the competition as fair as possible, we didn’t want the content to be easily visible on the site. Naturally, a reader would be most inclined to click on the first of the three articles – or possibly the last? – thereby skewing page view results.
We were primarily interested in measuring the organic value of the content.
These factors aside, there were no further modifications to any article.
We then used Google Search Console to confirm that all three blogs were indexed and crawled.
What’s the best AI blog writing tool on the market? Let’s find out. Credit: Sarah B on Unsplash.
The Results
As mentioned at the top of this piece, we were primarily keen to analyse and measure each platform across the following areas in order to identify the best AI blog writing tool:
- Usability and functionality
- Google page ranking/positioning
- Overall page views
This is what we found…
Usability and Functionality – AI Writer 2.0
AI Writer 2.0 appears to be the best AI blog writing tool, as far as flexibility is concerned.
After being prompted to add in your chosen keywords or keyphrase, it provides you with a selection of page titles, introductory paragraphs, subheadings, additional paragraphs, and conclusions to choose from.
If those handful of suggestions are not to your liking, the tool easily allows you to add alternatives and/or regenerate the content.
AI Writer 2.0 ‘loves a chat’, spitting out a comprehensive article that’s well laid out and scannable. It’s an intuitive and easy-to-use tool for generating content.
AI Writer 2.0 Ratings
- Usability: 9/10
- Functionality: 8/10
- Flexibility: 8/10
Important note: Since we created this article, AI Writer 2.0 has updated its free platform and restricted those flexible features to an upgraded version. As we are measuring the best AI blog writing tools from a ‘free’ perspective, this has led to us giving AI Writer 2.0 a revised flexibility rating of 4/10.
Comprehensive: AI Writer 2.0.
Usability and Functionality – ChatGPT
Compared to the other two platforms, ChatGPT was a little on the ‘lazier’ side.
When prompted to create an article ‘between 800-1000 words’, it steered towards the lesser end of the requested word count.
In our experience, ChatGPT tends to provide the bare minimum of characters. In short, you get what you ask for – and not much else. It needs a fair nudge if you’re looking for more detail.
What it does do well, though, is formulate a clear and concise article, with a headline, introduction, main body, and conclusion.
And the platform is super simple to use and easily regenerates content if you’re not satisfied with its original creation. Additionally, you can reword your prompts to improve variation.
ChatGPT Ratings
- Usability: 9/10
- Functionality: 7/10
- Flexibility: 3/10
ChatGPT isn’t one to waste words. Credit: Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash.
Usability and Functionality – HubSpot
HubSpot is a workhorse – at least with a bit of prompting.
If writing an article from scratch, you can start it by instructing HubSpot to ‘generate ideas’ – which prompts the software to provide a list of suggested topics.
You can then build an article, paragraph by paragraph, from these suggested topics.
Key to the way HubSpot’s blogging tool works is to keep prompting it to generate and expand on the suggestions it has just made.
For example, after asking HubSpot to generate an outline for your article, you can continually ask it to expand upon the various H2 and H3 headings it creates by populating each respective field with paragraphs of copy.
This has obvious pros and cons. On the one hand, HubSpot is adept at providing a generous amount of well-written content at the click of a button.
But what HubSpot struggles with is concluding a paragraph and allowing the narrative to continue to flow naturally on to the next one.
That’s because HubSpot tends to treat each section of copy as a standalone piece – often ending each with an ‘in conclusion’ and starting the next paragraph with an unwanted introduction.
‘Survival of the densest’ is how we would sum up the end result – well-written, wordy copy stuffed with keywords that help boost Google rankings, but which also require plenty of editorial oversight.
HubSpot Ratings
- Usability: 7/10
- Functionality: 8/10
- Flexibility: 4/10
Workhorse: HubSpot.
Google Page Ranking/Positioning
Four days after the articles were published, we did a Google search for the phrase, ‘The Iron Triangle of Project Management’.
The HubSpot article was the first to appear, positioned at the top of page three, with the ChatGPT version directly underneath it.
The AI Writer 2.0 article was nowhere to be found.
Exactly three weeks after the publish date, we noted that the ChatGPT article was appearing on page two, again one spot ahead of the HubSpot version (note: incognito search).
Once more, the AI Writer 2.0 article had the hiding skills of Ronnie Biggs.
Then, there was a twist…
Five weeks after the publish date, with an incognito search, the AI Writer 2.0 article found its way to the top of the Hunt & Hawk leaderboard. It appeared in the middle of page two, one spot ahead of the ChatGPT version.
This time, the HubSpot piece had gone missing.
Then, just one day later, there was another turn: the AI Writer 2.0 article remained at the top, but the HubSpot version had regained visibility and the ChatGPT version had assumed the role of magician.
Just to add to the complexity…
If you remove the word ‘the’ from the search – so simply typing in ‘iron triangle of project management’ – the results are starkly different. They’re also noticeably more favourable for our content.
At this point, it’s also worth mentioning that Google probably doesn’t like what we’re doing. While we’re not exactly duplicating copy – which is, of course, an absolute no-no in the eyes of the famous search engine – we are creating similar content that’s cannibalising the other. It’s far from best practice.
So, let’s move on to another metric…
There was plenty to analyse in the race to find the best AI blog writing tool. Credit: John Schnobrich on Unsplash.
Page Views
Just prior to this piece being published, we measured the articles’ page views. Clearly, this is a key indicator as to the best AI blog writing tool available.
Here is the percentage of total page views that each article had reaped:
- AI Writer 2.0: 52%
- HubSpot: 31%
- ChatGPT: 17%
Despite a seemingly slow start, AI Writer 2.0 is powering on like a racehorse. Once again, it will be interesting to see how this metric evolves given more time.
The ChatGPT article ranked last for page views. Credit: Sanket Mishra on Unsplash.
Overall Verdict
At this point of the experiment, there’s a strong case to argue that AI Writer 2.0 is holding the title of best AI blog writing tool of the three options we tested – based on it hogging the lion’s share of total page views.
As mentioned earlier, we also found it to be the most flexible of the three platforms when it came to content generation – even with the limitations that now affect the free version.
But it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
SEO is a long game, and there has already been wildly fluctuating page positionings with the articles within a relatively short period.
This is unlikely to be the end of the story…
The long game. Credit: Nisonco PR and SEO on Unsplash.
Other AI Blog Writing Tools
While ChatGPT has seemingly grabbed the bulk of attention, there are loads of AI writing tools available.
We simply chose three of the more high profile platforms to conduct our experiment.
There are other AI writing tools out there. Credit: Mojahid Mottakin on Unsplash.
Are AI Blog Writer Articles Any Good?
That’s subjective, of course.
However, we opine that each platform is capable of producing well-structured, scannable, and readable content. It’s just a bit vanilla, with a lack of flair and personality.
Additionally, each blog has reasonable SEO value, based on what we’ve seen so far. But neither platform provides the backend requirements of content creation that are vital for gaining Google’s attention – as we outlined above.
All in all, the content is ‘fine’, but in our experience these tools are useful for creating a solid foundation to work with, and then human intervention is required to make them truly engaging and SEO friendly. This is true of even the best AI blog writing tools.
If you genuinely want words that resonate with your brand and stand out in an ocean of content, human touch is vital.
Need help with that (hint hint)? Reach out to us at Hunt & Hawk for assistance.
Contact us at hello@huntandhawk.com or book a meeting to chat.
AI. It’s complicated. Credit: Steve Johnson on Unsplash.
Want to Read the Articles?
If you wish to read the three articles, they’re here…
Please note: We can confirm that this article was not crafted with any AI assistance.
